Christians: The Middle East's newest endangered species

Rupert Shortt of the UK-based think tank Civitas has released a study entitled Christianophobia: A Faith Under Attack in which he cites “there is now a serious risk that Christianity will disappear from its biblical heartlands,” as reported Dec. 25, 2012 by The Trumpet.

As cited in his report, Shortt estimates:

200 million Christians (10 per cent of the global total) are socially disadvantaged, harassed or actively oppressed for their beliefs. Exposing and combating the problem ought in my view to be political priorities across large areas of the world.

The author then sharply stated:

That this is not the case tells us much about a questionable hierarchy of victimhood.

Christian persecution is a problem in all the countries Shortt examined. He concludes that “the lion’s share of their problems arise in Muslim-majority societies,” citing that “in the large area between Morocco and Pakistan, for example, there is scarcely a country in which [Christian] church life operates without restrictions.”

Iraq As A Microcosm…

Christians have historically never fared well under Muslim regimes, but “the early 21st century has seen a steady rise in the strife endured by Christians.” In what has been widely ignored by the Western media, Shortt notes:

Half to two thirds of all Christians in the Middle East have been killed or forced to leave.

One of the most dramatic drops in number comes from Iraq.

In 1990 there were 1.2 to 1.4 million Christians.

By the start of the second Gulf war, that number had plummeted to 500,000 fewer.

Now there are under 200,000.

What Race Is Islam…?

In what could be the most damning section of his report, Shortt states that the crisis facing the Middle East’s Christians has not gained the attention it should have because:

[p]arts of the media have been influenced by the logical error that equates criticism of Muslims with racism, and therefore as wrong by definition.

Dropping Like A Stone…

A report by the European University Institute illustrates that during the early 1900s, the Arab-Christian population of “Greater Syria” (Lebanon, Syria and present day Israel) stood at 33 percent overall. Similarly, the Christian population of Lebanon during the 1960s was slightly over 50 percent nationwide. Prior to the country’s civil war (1975-1990), Lebanon’s Christian population was estimated as high as 85 percent

Lebanon has seen that number drop to as low as 30 percent, with Syria’s number dropping to low single digits, and still falling. The numbers are similar throughout the Muslim dominated region.

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